


A Study in Hatred

by literaryheckler



Category: Homestuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-30
Updated: 2013-04-30
Packaged: 2017-12-09 23:19:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/779119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryheckler/pseuds/literaryheckler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short statement, documenting the difference between Human and Troll warfare, from a troll perspective. Idea credit does to FlipSpring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study in Hatred

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Mistranslation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/526471) by [FlipSpring](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlipSpring/pseuds/FlipSpring). 



Recorded by Archaios Klirodot, chief histerrorian to ) (er Imperious Condescension, after the Massacre of the Fleet in the sweep 612 P.I. (post invasion)

We, as a race, have adapted ourselves to the trials of war. We have honed the war machine of our race to a fine tipped blade, and with methodical practice, we penetrate the hearts of our every victim, one after the next. After each race falls, we cull those who are unworthy, and claim those who have use. We have incorporated every practice, stolen every technology, and studied every mentality of every race we have ever fought, and then turned it against them, melded with what we have gained before and magnified a billion fold. We have never suffered a defeat, save when we have made war against ourselves. When we encountered the tiny race of "humans," as they called themselves, seemingly meek in their paltry seven point six billion, we thought the pattern would continue, remarkable only for their physical similarity. We couldn't have been more wrong.

Preliminary reports during the first sweep of the invasion from the mediterrorists aboard the Imperial Flagship showed humans to be a weak race, lacking both in physical prowess and in psionic capability, though their mental capabilities seemed concurrent with troll capabilities, and though their immunological health was appalling, their mental health was better than all but the ancient lime bloods. The only thing which saved them from immediate culling was their similarity to us, provoking an in-depth study.

What was most interesting was their relationship structure. While all races we had encountered previously have not followed the quadrant system, we found that humans had a nearly identical system, though all but flushed were vestigial, and had little bearing upon mental and reproductive health. What interested us most was their flushed quadrant, which melded aspects of all four, and was based on a host of emotions other than pity. We spent four centuries trying to dissect their romance. When ) (er Imperious Condescension finally grew bored of them four centuries later, she used psionics to destroy one of their cities in a single day and night of bountiful plunder, then continued to the next star system, leaving the rest for the rest of the fleet to deal with six sweeps later. It was the single worst decision of her reign.

In focusing on the flushed, we neglected the pitch, and discovered that the pitch had even more bearing on their lives than flushed. In their day to day lives, flushed has by far the strongest impact on their lives. They can go decades without a single pitched incident, but mere months without flush will leave them smoldering wrecks of themselves. But the black crush of a single human could shape their entire civilization in less than half a sweep. In destroying Istanbul, we blackflirted seven and a half billion humans. And in a single instant, they reciprocated. We ceased being the friend, the platonic moirail. We became the enemy. Not in the sense we commonly use it, but in the oldest sense, from long in the past of our species. Not even the platonic kismesis. We became vermin. Vermin with the strength and power of a cholorbear. We became an entity which must be erased from existence at all costs.

Overnight, they made space travel cheap. They solved their food crisis. They solved "global warming." They learned technologies it took us millennia to learn or steal in perigees. They united their warring nations into a single government, colonized their entire solar system, and created the relativity drive in fewer than five sweeps. Overnight they changed from a placid race eager to please, into a war machine to rival the early days of our own. When the fleet dropped out of hyperspace a quarter light-sweep beyond their Oort Cloud, they fell into the maw of a waiting giant.

We, in general, are geared to fight troll to troll. We favor hand weapons, melee over ranged, and on foot over mounted, in the classical infantry format. Humans, on the other hand, are far less specialized, leading to them having no true strength on the battlefield. That is why they learned what they call "artillery," weapons capable of raining destruction on the enemy, safe in a bunker thousands of miles away. The humans had strengthened all aspects of their civilization in the sweeps they had alone, including artillery. Before the Fleet passed the Kuiper Belt, the humans knew they were there, and were prepared. Not a single troll ship which entered combat survived the engagement. Not a single warrior was deployed, because there was nowhere to deploy to. The front line wasn't even aware of a threat, and were slaughtered in their recuperacoons. Three ships escaped, out of the four hundred warships and thirteen base ships. Having gone back through the records of the engagement, it has since become obvious that those three ships were allowed to escape, presumably to bring word to the main fleet.

Now, almost two hundred sweeps later, peace has been reached. The human Masters have depleted their planet nigh unto extinction in order to accomplish it, but our positions have been reversed and then some. Other than a few pockets left standing, reminiscent of what the Masters nicknamed "Indian reserves," the Alternian Empire has been entirely subsumed into the Terran Empire. Our once proud race has been reduced to slaves, though the Masters abhor the title and call us "vassals." The Masters have allowed us to keep our customs, in their graciousness. ) (er Imperious Condescension, my superior, has been allowed to live. We have been decimated. Both in the Alternian sense, and the Human Latin sense. The Masters have been merciful, and if we had but learned of their every custom before we miss-stepped, we might have never needed their mercy.


End file.
